In 1974, 4-year-old Ian Shaw embarked on a memorable journey to visit his father, Robert Shaw, who was busy working on the set of Steven Spielberg’s iconic film, Jaws. It was a pivotal moment in young Ian’s life as he witnessed his late father’s remarkable portrayal of the fearless shark hunter, Quint.
Ian has come full circle, transcending his childhood fears of Bruce, the mechanical shark, and has taken center stage himself, not as a wide-eyed child but as a seasoned actor on Broadway playing his father in the movie, The Shark Is Broken—a Broadway roadway production that pays homage to the behind-the-scenes stories of Jaws.
Ian Shaw says he was Initially scared of the Broadway project, ‘The Shark Is Broken’
In an interview with PEOPLE, the actor revealed that throughout his acting pursuits, he had always wanted to achieve success without a link to his late dad’s outstanding career. “I’d spent my whole life trying to avoid association with my dad. He was a very successful film star, but I wanted to be an actor in my own rights,” Ian admitted. “And I thought, as you do as children of these successful people, it’s in poor taste if you cash in on their success — you want to do your own thing.”
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“Although it was with a lot of help [from] my friends and family, I still felt it was an enormous risk and that it would carry potential backlash of possible shame on my family because I didn’t want to put [him] on a pedestal,” he explained further. “But equally, I didn’t want to throw him under a bus either. So the tone made me feel very nervous.”
Ian Shaw reveals that the Broadway play resonated with audiences
The 53-year-old disclosed that contrary to his initial apprehension, the audience seemed to love every part of the project. “It’s about love, I think. And you feel it in the audience,” Ian confessed to PEOPLE. “I feel like when I’m talking about my father — when I’m playing my father talking about his father and his yearning, his loss… he wanted to comfort his father, but he wasn’t able to. And it’s moving.”
He also expressed his enthusiasm to share the New York City’s John Golden Theatre stage with his late mom, Mary Ure, who performed on the same stage in 1957. “She made her Broadway debut in Look Back in Anger, and I’m making mine with this,” Ian gushed. “And so yeah, I mean, I feel incredibly privileged to be in that position. I’m a very lucky person to be able to say that.”